


The People You See In The Workplace

by greenscribbles



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenscribbles/pseuds/greenscribbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Olivia's private life crashes into her work life. Technically a sequel, but perhaps it could stand on its own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The People You See In The Workplace

Title: The People You See in the Workplace  
Pairing: Alex/Olivia  
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, I just put them in situations that make me smile.

 

The squad room was relatively quiet for a police precinct when Elliot walked into work that morning. He was not surprised to see Olivia’s desk still empty, no trace of her arriving evident on its yet uncluttered surface. Munch and his new partner, one Fin Tutuola, were already seated at their desks, talking amicably over stacks of sorely ignored paperwork. Noticing the presence of Elliot, but failing to sense any trace of Olivia, Munch looked up from his conversation to inspect the bullpen.

“What’s this?” he asked over the rim of his glasses. “You made it here before Olivia?”

“It's been known to happen,” Elliot replied smoothly, draping his coat over his chair and making a beeline for the standing coffee counter. As he tilted the pot of steaming brew into his mug, Elliot nodded toward Captain Cragen’s closed office door, which thankfully gave him a reason to change the subject. “The Captain not in yet?”

“No, he’s in,” Munch replied. “Talking to some legal outfit. Apparently, we’re being assigned a new, more permanent ADA.”

“What happened to Carmichael?” Elliot asked, surprised.

“Inexplicably reassigned,” Munch said simply, eyebrows raising. ”I was just telling my partner here how the criminal justice system likes to shuffle its pawns on a regular basis. First it’s the ADAs, then it’s us. You’ll never see it coming, my friend.”

Fin looked perplexedly up at Elliot and offered a casual nod in Munch's direction, “Does he ever, you know, _shut up_?”

Elliot replied with a giant smile that made Fin visibly cringe. “John Munch, shut up? Hah. You know he sent his old partner down in Baltimore into early retirement with that yap of his. Or hasn't he told you?”

Fin sank further into his desk, evidently resigned. And Munch returned to his paperwork, but not before shooting Elliot a reproachful look. He thought he heard Munch mutter something about Stanley-someone, but couldn’t be sure. Adding another packet of sugar to his mug, Elliot swirled the coffee around and took a drink. The liquid was foul, but hit the spot like only precinct coffee could. “Nothing like a hot cup of rat piss to wake you up in the mornings.”

“You said it,” came Olivia’s voice from the other end of the room. Elliot turned his head as casually as he could manage and watched as Olivia strode casually into the bullpen and slid into her desk chair. She gave him a good morning look very similar to the ones she gave him every morning, when they weren’t sharing a secret between them, and Elliot was disappointed when there was nothing telling in Olivia’s gaze. He found himself trying very, very hard to not pull up a chair next to Olivia’s desk and ask her to tell him everything. “Elliot, can you spare a cup?”

“One hot cup of Joe coming right up,” Elliot said, a little exaggeratedly, which did not go unnoticed by the observant Munch. Elliot fixed Olivia’s coffee with one sugar and little cream, like he knew she liked it, and brought it to her desk. He placed it firmly on the desktop and lingered unnecessarily by her chair before walking around the desk and settling into his own seat. “Drink up. I hear the worse it tastes, the better it is for you.”

“Excellent,” Olivia said, taking the mug in her hands and taking a deep breath. A little lost in her own mind, Olivia failed to notice Elliot’s inquisitive gaze from across the desks until she looked up to grab a pen. He looked so eager, sitting expectantly in his seat. Olivia smirked and wagged her eyebrows at him, then pretended to be enthralled by the stack of manila folders she had just removed from her drawer. “What’s the Captain up to?”

“Talking to the new ADA,” Fin replied.

“New ADA?” Olivia asked. She absentmindedly swirled her coffee around the mug. “It’s shuffle season already?”

“A little early,” Munch said. He leaned forward in his chair, almost whispering into the small isle between the four desks, “Between you and me, I think this may have something to do with our evaluations.”

“You think maybe the shrink sensed one of us had bad rapport with Carmichael?” Elliot asked. Further speculation was cut short by the familiar call to arms that the detectives had learned to heed,

“People!”

Captain Don Cragen strode up from the back of the bullpen. Uniformly, the squad rose at the sound of his voice, and Olivia, back turned to the Captain, brought her coffee mug to her lips and took a confident sip.

She caught the sudden change in Elliot’s face too late: his eyebrows jumped into his hairline, his eyes flew open in wide surprise, and he his jaw actually dropped. Elliot offered Olivia the slightest, almost nonexistent, nod of his head. The message: _Turn around, but be smart about it._ Mug still at her mouth, Olivia turned on her heel and faced three people: Donald Cragen, Arthur Branch and - 

Olivia’s reaction was almost cartoonish. She spat out her coffee in surprise (which was too hot to drink, anyway) and right onto Alexandra Cabot’s white designer suit top. The ADA, along with Cragen and Branch, took a few steps backward in surprise and self-preservation, then looked up, perplexed, at the brunette detective.

Olivia wiped her chin with rapid apology. _You have got to be shitting me._

The disdainful look coming from Branch and the increasingly furrowing brow of her captain prompted Olivia to correct herself as quickly as possible. Grasping for plausible excuses, Olivia held her mug of coffee away from her body as if it were something heinous, and rambled stupidly, “Wow, that's hot coffee. I guess I didn't think before I, uh, took a drink. I am _so_ sorry. I really am. Please, Counselor, I’ll take care of the dry cleaning bill. I just - wow, hot coffee.”

“Sorry, Liv, I should have told you it was fresh off the hotplate,” Elliot, now somewhat composed, remarked uselessly from behind his desk. “My bad.”

“Yeah, your bad,” Olivia replied for the sake of not allowing an awkward silence to settle between the persons present. “I can’t feel my tongue, El. I won’t be able to taste anything for days.”

A perplexed expression crossed over Cragen’s face, his keen detective senses informing him that the conversation between his detectives had not, in fact, been about hot coffee. Nevertheless, he proceeded with what he had set out to do. “If we’re all done learning how to not drink hot beverages,” Cragen began with a stern, almost disapproving look at Olivia, “I’d like to introduce our newest ADA, Alexandra Cabot. She will be taking over for ADA Carmichael starting today and will handle all of our cases. Ms. Cabot, these are my detectives, Elliot Stabler, John Munch, Fin Tutuola, and - the usually competent - Olivia Benson.”

The wry smile that crossed Alex’s lips was not lost on Olivia, who felt herself begin to blush, and could only hope to blame it on the fact that she'd just spit up all over herself and a relative stranger. Alex simply smiled. “Not to worry, I’ve had worse welcomes; working within the law, one comes to realize quickly that your profession is not often appreciated by most people.”

“I’m sure Olivia will find a way to show you just how much she appreciates you,” Cragen said firmly. He emphasized the importance of his statement with another look in Olivia’s direction. She, in turn, nodded sternly at her captain, despite the hysterical giggle crawling up her throat. The only thing that kept her grounded was Arthur Branch's stern gaze, and the knowledge that Cragen had always put importance on fostering a healthy relationship between his precinct and the District Attorney’s office, and never appreciated any attempts to undermine it. “And she will be more than happy to do it.”

Cragen turned sharply and began powering back into his office, Arthur Branch on his heels. Only Alex lingered by the gathered detectives, smirking, eyes ablaze with amusement. And locked on Olivia. She took one long step forward. And, to her credit, Olivia stood her ground. Alex's smile never faltered; and through her clenching jaw, Olivia smiled right back.

“Oh, something tells me she will, Captain." Alex said, though Cragen was well out of earshot by now. “However, I think it’s best to wait until that tongue of yours is in proper working order before you try showing me any kind of appreciation.”

The clatter of what could only be Munch’s cup of pens hitting the floor met Olivia’s ears, as did Elliot’s sad attempt to disguise his snort, and consecutive burst of laughter, as a cough.


End file.
